Half life: side story
by jonn254
Summary: written by a friend of mine. mainly occ but will contain main characters later. takes place after the 7 hour war but before half life 2
1. Chapter 1

Half-Life 2: Side Story.

_This is a story written by a friend of mine he asked be to post it up for him. Thus meaning it is not my own work._

Chapter 1

At the brink of night the sounds of a train Screeching to a halt echoes through the plains. As three harden rebels crawled silently through the long dry grass towards the Combine train, the could overhear the Combine's radio chatter as the clambered out of the train, "Vector 1, this is HQ we got reports of some rouges out there report any sightings and detain if possible over.", "copy that HQ Vector 1 out."

As the rebels crept closer their goal became, complicated "Looks like we got some soldiers guarding the dam thing." Keith said softly ot the others, Jake turned his head to the right to Keith and smiled "And when has that ever stopped us before huh?", Keith nodded and turned to his left to Mason "you hang Back here and give us cover, we'll sneak up on them and see whether or not we can hitch a ride", Mason gave a simple nod in response. "Alrighty." Kieth said as the walked towards the side of the train. "wait for it wait for it... Now." Keith yelled as he and Jake ran towards the train. Mason opened fire killing a solder in a blast of hot lead as they neared the train car, it was then that the combine realise that there was more than just one rebel out here.

As the soldiers mobilized Keith stepped out from between the train's engine and the first car. As Jake dove for cover beside Jake scrambled to get up off the ground Keith fired at the soldiers as they organized themselves. Every time he killed one another took it's place and returned fire. Mason was now lying in a new spot in the long grass towards the side of the action aiming his pulse rifle a soldier as he began to move forward towards the others , Mason smiled and fired a single shot with godlike precision and snickered "Headshot", Keith quickly stepped back behind the trian car as pulse rifle round shot past narrowly missing his head. The remaining soldiers started moving forwards closing in on the pinned rebels despite Mason's sniping. Keith slammed another magazine into his SMG preparing for the coming troops. The radios suddenly blared "GO,GO,GO!!" and the next car's doors burst open and even more combine troops lept from the train car to eliminate the rouge entities.

"Looks like there's something good on this train huh" , Jake said optimistically to keith as he reloaded his shotgun. "let's just focus on getting on the dam thing." Keith replied as more gunshots ricocheted off the side of the train car. " I have an idea!" Jake said suddenly, then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a old 'flash bang' grenade. "where the hell did you find that?" Keith exclaimed as he continued to fire upon the approaching combine troops, "tell you later." Jake replied as he pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it around the corner of the train car. As the grenade landed at the feet of the soldier Jake and keith adverted their eyes from the burst of light and noise, the soldiers were instanly blinded and were stumbing around disoriented as Keith and Jake both stepped out from around the corner of the train car and gunned down the combine mercilessly.

As the last glimmers of sunlight flickered across the horizon Keith stepped into the troops transport car on the train gun raised in anticipation of a survivor to be hinding in amongst the seats and weapon racks against the walls, but the was no one to be seen. Nearby Jake was raiding the combine soldiers body's for ammo and medical supplies.

Mason ran down from his sniping postion waving to the others as he got closer he said to Jake "ha ha! Another successful hijacking." Jake responded with a smile "yeah and I found some supplies, this is turning into our lucky day hey keith." Jake turned to face the open thrian doors expecting to see his friend standing there. But he wasn't "hey keith you there?" jake asked then he saw Keith step up and look at him "yeah I'm here, listen we'd better get on this thing before it starts up again." Jake looked at Mason before the both just on board the train we which sprung to life closeing the doors behind them.

Jake walked towards the local control console at the very end of the trains car at the head of the seat row. "I'll try and hack that thing and see where this train is heading and if there's anything special the combine are hiding. Sitting down near the console he began typing. Mason laided down across several of the seat in the car placed his gun of the ground the shut his eyes "if you two don't mind I'm going to try and get some sleep." Jake gave a nod and muttered "ok."

Keith looking around the train car spotted a overwatch standard issue AR2 pulse rifle mounted in one of the weapon racks and smiled "finally." he walked over put his Smg on the rack and picked up the AR2 and began examining it.

The sun had set and the train was moving as full speed across the horizion of blackness Keith sat down on the opposite to where mason was sleeping and began to feel his mind becoming blurry with fatigue. Placing his gun on the ground he lay down on the seats and slolwy went to sleep dreaming of a time before the 7 hours war.


	2. Chapter 2

Hλlf-life: side story

chapter 2

_well here it is the second chapter sorry it took so long.I've been speaking with the author and his hard at work on the third chapter and is very eager to know what you think and now for a quick reminder I did not write this I have merly been asked to post this story as a favor to a friend._

Keith's eyes opened to the sights and sounds of his home city, it was bristling with activity, cars and people alike, a sight he had not seen in a very long time. He was standing on the roof of an old small skyscraper looking down upon the streets below him, but as he looked he realised that this was a very different day from those of old. It was the smells in the air and the sounds all around him. They seemed even here too familiar.

As he lent over the edge of the roof to look below again he saw people running and screaming in panic, and it was at this moment Kieth realised the day it was, the defining moment in humanities history. He turned slowly and saw the great onrange fracture in the sky that brought forth the combine, A pair of gunships flew across the buildings to Keith's left, Guns roaring with fire and noise causing the building to collapse and people to fall in a chaos of fear and blood. As the gunships followed the streets gunning down anything that moved one split off from the formation and started shooting the building Keith was on the roof of, just before the bullet trail hit him. Everything went black.

"Keith, Keith! Wake up!" Jake shouted into Keith's ear.

"Huh...What is it?" Keith responded as he raised himself to a seated position. Jake sat down at the control console and broguht up a map of what was most likely the area they were in. "I've been digging around and it turns out the troops we killed were a small reinforcment group for a local garrision in a place called 'city 17' it seems to be a large urban centre".

Keith looked over Jakes shoulder Intrigued "anything on where the train came from?".

Jake scrolled over the map a bit "yeah this train came from an old high security prison called nova prospect, and there's something else an encrypted file, I can't open it and I've tried everything".

Keith rested his chin on his hand thinking "maybe it's an order file."

Jake looked over his shoulder to the map "could be, hard to tell, looks like we're going to need some help on this one".

Keith looked at the map "there may be a active resistance group in the city".

Jake turned in his seat to face him, the bright moonlight shinning through ther large slits in the ceiling above Illiminating the facial hair around keiths chin and jaw line, some shadows cast across his face from the clustered strand of hair peering from beneath his old tattered beanie. "maybe, we'll see when we get there, but for now I've already started downloading the file to a C.D.S.D ( Combine Data Storage Device.), it should be done in a few hours".

Keith stood up and began a routine check of his gear, "right, tell me when the files are done ok."

Jake turned to the console "sure."

Keith reached over his back and un-slung the bags he had on, he opened the largest one and rummaged around for some food he had in there, his hands latched onto something round and cylindrical pulling the object out he saw it was his old favourite, baked beans. He pulled the can out of his bag and drpped the bag down on the seats behind him, he looked at the old and slightly rusted can and saw a reflection of himself, he saw looking back at him a man who had seen a long time of struggle and despair, just like Mason and Jake. Keith's eyes were drawn to the large straight scar across his face from the top right to the bottom left, he rans his fingers down it and remembered the pain it had once caused. Now all but a bitter memory of the past.

Keith took a deep breath and left the past behind, sitting down he pulled a knife out from a sheath on his belt and started to cut into the cans thin steel surface, taking his time in cutting it, at this point there was no need to rush.

Mason rolled over and opened his eyes to Kieth eating "OI! Mind sharing some of that over here." Mason said jokingly as he raised himself to a seated position. He reached out his arm for the can, Keith handed the can over without a single sign of argument, Mason grasped the can of beans and pulled out an old steel fork from his bag beside him and started eating.

As keith sat there looking upon his old friend, he could see the same signs of wear and tear upon Mason's cloths and civil protection vest, the same kind that they all had, Masonlooked up to the ceiling to gaze at the stars, "sun will rise soon." he looked down to face Keith. "anyways where are we heading?" Mason asked inquisitively.

Jake turned in his chair towards the others "well where going on a nice relaxing trip to another large urban center thats probably swelling with combine but sadly we missed out on seeing where it came from but don't ask about that ok. Oh and we got some encrypted files I'm currently downlaoding which we're going to need some help decrypting."

Mason looke at Jake with a similar smile of sarcastic humour they were all feeling, he looked back at kieth and placed the can of beans on the seat to his left, "so another city run huh." he said with a slight hint of exhaustion in his voice, looking back at Keith who gave a slight nod in reply. Jake turned back to the console, waiting for the file to finish loading, "98 percent.. and it been about 6 hours so far, so it should be done soon." Jake said to Mason and Keith, just to let them know it's status, Keith looked up to the sky seeing the light shining through the ceiling rafters and smiled "the suns finally up." he said with a hint of relief in his voice. Mason looked to the sky like Keith was and took a deep breath, "smells like we're close to the coast." he said with a slight smile on his weary face.

Time passed, the train kept moving, the three rebels chatted and prepped for the city and the loading bar slowly increased. Jake was sitting with his head back looking up at the sky watching the clouds pass over the train, he turned and glanced at the console for just a second and saw that the process was finally at 100%. "hey guys the files are done loading." he said with a feeling of relief in his voice as he pulled the C.D.S.D from the consoles exernal drive port.

Kieth looked over at Jake with a mixed expression of relief and anxiety, "you think there is any chance they'll try and track this train?" he said with a sense of concern in his voice.

Mason looked at Jake with the same expression "yeah I mean they've done it before.".

Jake looked at the other two and then at the piece of cold steel in his hand. "don't worry, I've done a ghost load, they won't be able to tell the things been copied." he said in a confident tone of voice.

Then as Jake went to sit down a flash of red light flared through the train car, everyone looked around in confusion. Jake walked quickly over to the console and tapped on the keyboard, "OH SHIT! THEY' FOUND US!" he yelled.

Kieth and Mason both stood up and looked at Jake "thought you ghosted them, how the hell did they trace you!." Mason said angered at his friends apparent error,

Jake was looking down at the flashing console, tapping at the keypad," they must be tracking the train. CRAP THEY'VE GOT A CHOPPER AFTER US IT'S FOLLOWING THE TRACKS IT'LL BE HERE IN A MATTER OF SECOND!" Suddenly the sound of helicopter blaes slicing through the air erupted from above.

They looked up and saw the underside of a hunter chopper fly aboive them towards the front of the train, the sound of the Machine gun fire was Immediately followed by the sounds of bullets hitting steel. Keith looked at Mason and Jake "THE FUCKERS TRYING TO TAKE OUT THE TRAIN!" he yelled his voice being nearly drowned out by the sounds of alarms and the choppers blades cutting through the air not to mention the choppers machine gun continued to hurl hot lead at the trains armoured engine in and attempt to destroy it. The three rebels grabbed their gear and tried to formulate a plan. Jake looked at the Train cars doors and thought of one. "HEY GUYS, I GOT AND IDEA. WE GOTTA JUMP FROM THE TRAIN!" Jake yelled while pointing at the door. Kieth looked at Jake and Mason, the grin on his face one they knew all to well. Kieth picked up his bag and slung it on his back "THAT SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD PLAN FOR THE SITUATION AT HAND!" he yelled, then suddenly they fell forward and hit the floor hard there was a boom from the engine as the train jolted back and resumed it's default speed, Kieth picked himself back up and groaned in frustration.

Mason and Jake stoop up and looked in the direction of the train's engine, the gunfire had stopped and the chopper had moved ahead of the train. The silence was soon followed by the distinctive sound of a rocket firing. Keith's eye's widened in fear, he turned quickly to the others, they both had the same ecpression on their faces, he heard the rocket getting closer towards them.

"Brace yourself." he yelled before being droned out as the rocket hit the engine, the train car jolted back as it hit the wreckage of the engine and began to roll, the rebels were thrown all around the car as flames began to ignite and steel bent like grass in the wind. The train stopped it's roll and slid along the ground, Keith hit the roof og the train hard (which was now the floor.) he couldn't feel his body anymore, he felt the heat of the fires around him, the cold of the steel under him and he could see the sun shine in the dust through a tear in the side of the train, keith's vision began to blur and fade as the shade of the chopper flew into the distance, As it's shape faded. Everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

The dust and sand started to settle upon the still wreck of the train, there was no noise coming from the wreckage bar the sound of frie burning among the steel and sand.

Keith's body lay still upon the steel roof of the train, there was no movement from the rebel,the sun was shining on his dirty face, illuminating the hairs on his chin and jaw. A small fly flew onto his cheek, it could sense something underneath its small feet, it flew away and the cool sea wind began to blow onto keith's face, suddenly his eyes opened in reaction of shock as his whole body arched with movement of his lungs inflating with an almighty gasp of air. As his bod laid back down on the roof keith's mind started to fear for his life. Clenching his hands and feet he made sure the crash hadn't damaged his spine, He steadied his breath and slowly rolled over onto his stomach, his body aced, he lifted himself with his arms to see the steel and sand where he had laid. He coughed to clear his lungs and throat, as he wiped his hand over his mouth he looked down to see his own blood on his hand and on the floor, Keith grinned with a hint of pain in his expression.

Keith crawled forwards towards a man sized hole in the side of the train car, sand had blown in by the sea breeze, offering some comfort underneath keith's sore hands and knees, Kieth reachedthe hole in the car and slowly slid onto his stomach through the gagged steel shreds along it's rim.

He immediately could feel the cool sensation of the sand on his hands and face. He lay still, allowing his body to rest after the traumatic event that had just come before, his world went numb as his breath began to slow, his rest was startled by an agonized moan from somewhere ahead of him, Keith slowly moved his head to see what it was, but he couldn't see any motion.

Keith lifted his acing body up to get a better view of his surroundings, he looked eagerly to find any signs of life, suddenly his eyes were drawn to a small pile of steel wreckage, he peered intently at the pile sensing something there. He slowly lifted himself to his feet and cautiously moved towards the pile of steel, as he neared it he suddenly stopped as there was a sudden movement underneath the steel, Keith moved towards it slowly and could see a hand poking out from underneath a small plate of steel, Keith suddenly realized who it was. Rushing over to the pile of bent metal and shattered glass he began to life the wreckage of his friend, as he shifted a large piece of cold steel of mason's chest he grabbed him around the shoulder and dragged him from the remaining wreckage.

Kieth laid Mason down on the light brown sand he skimmed his eyes over Mason's motionless body, suddenly Kieth turned as there was a loud crashing noise followed by the sound of steel hitting sand, Kieth lifted his assault rifle and aimed at the direction of the noise, tracking the footsteps as they approached the two rebels, Suddenly Jake appeared from behind what remained of the trains engine.

Keith lowered his AR3 and gave a sigh of relief, "dam it Jake you should learn to walk a little louder next time, anyway masons' over here, but he's out cold",

Jake walked over to mason and put his med kit down on the ground and opened it, Jake then began to examine Masons body "well from what I can see he's still alive, just ah..."

"of course I'm still alive dam it!" Mason said suddenly with strain in his voice as he slowly sat and Keith helped him stay up, then Mason looked down at his leg to see a shard of shrapnel sticking out of his thigh, "oh, well that's problematic" he said ironically.

Jake looked at the blood covered jagged shard of metal and then looked back at Mason,"it's got to come out,Keith hold him down will you."

Mason grabbed Jake's arm "can't you at least give me a shot for the pain doc." he saud drowsily from the loss of blood, immediately Jake reached for his med pack and pulled out small medical cylinder containing a green fluid within. Keith laid Mason down on the sand and then look up at the cylinder, "I know thats stuffs great and all but it still creeps me out",

Jake looked at Keith and back at mason, then without hesitation he injected the fluid into masons leg, "okay, I just hope this does more good than harm", Kieth crined as jake proceeded to pull the metak shard from mason's thigh, slowly it began to slide sleanly out of thenmuscle and bone and finally came free, suddenly Mason shot up and clasped his leg, letting out an almighty scream of pain, Jake and keith grabbed mason and held him up. "well, that went better than I expected, that wound should heal up fine in a minute or two," Jake said with a slight tone of relief in his voice.

Keith patted Jake on theshoulder, "I'll just take a quick look around if you could stay with mason", Jake looked up at Keith and nodded "alright, don't go too far we'll be moving soon", keith slung his bag and grabbed his pulse rifle, "okay, I'll see what I can find around the place" Keith said as he turned away from the others and walked slowly around the wreckage of the train.

As he walked around what was the remnants of the front of the trains engine, Keith's eyes were immediately drawn towards the ocean horizion, the rising sun was sitting just above the waterline, the light shining on the sandy beach just a few meters away from the tracks, Kieth looked up along the tracks in the direction the train was heading and could see it ran mostly parallel to the coastline Keith could feel the cool sea air against his face and neck, Jake walked towards Keith, "hey keith I found something."

Keith turned towards Jake "okay show me." he said quietly, Jake and keith returned to find Mason standing up and stretching his arms out, his leg had completely healed. "Jake, I got to say that's some good shit." Mason said vibrantly, Jake gave a grin and walked past Mason, towards a open hatch further down the flipped train Keith close behind him.

"I was snooping around and I found this crate of supplies but I'm having trouble opening it." Jake said as he reached into the open hatch and dragged out a large steel box with combie marks on it, Keith looked at it and sighed "ok, lets get this over to mason frist, he can help." he said. Then the both of them grasped a sid eof the box and lifted it out of the train car and moved towards the head of the train. "man this things heavier then it looks", Keith said with a strained quiver in his voice,

Jake turned to keith and smiled "that just means there's something good in it." as they neared the remnants of the engine Mason rushed over and helprf his friends carry their loot.

The three rebels slowly placed the box down onto the ground and stood back up to think. "now how are we ment to get it open?" Jake said to the others, Mason looked down at the box and quickly drew his pistol and shot the latch, Keith and Jake looked at the box them back at mason.

Keith grinned "crude but effective, nice job." .

Jake lifted the now bullet struck lid off the crate, "well, look at what we have here some good old personal radios" Keith said cheerily.

"hell there's even some ammo and supplies here."Mason said as he began to retrieve items from the crate, Jake grabbd the three radios and passed them to mason and Kieth, "we'd better take these, could come in handy at some point." just as they finished fitting the radios to their metro vest's there was an immediate flare of static and noise from the speakers, mason and jake turned off their radios to no draw attention to themselves while Kieth tried to find the right frequency. As the numbers switched between channels the static began to clear, as he switched to channel: 153 the static was replaced by the voice of a man "this is shore-point base to and resistance forces, it is highly recommended that you return to any resistance installation as soon as possible, combine are upping their patrols of the coast, I repeat combine are upping their patrols of the coast, over and out."

Keith looked at mason and Jake, "looks like we got some friends here after all. Jake you got any Ideas on where the signals coming from?" Jake looked down at his radio, he then lifted it up and turned it on, he listened to the signal and moved around to check the frequency strenght, he turned back to Keith "surprising as it seems, the signals coming from somewhere in the direction of the city we're heading to, and that means we follow the tracks till we see something."

Kieth unslung his pulse rifle and reloaded it, "alright lets go, two meter spread no sound, let's move." as the three rbels began their trek to shore point Jake pulled the C.D.S.D from his pocket and checked it for damage and put it back in his chest pocket, whatever it had it must have been good.


End file.
